Historic Scotland has launched a new kids adventure trail at Dumbarton Castle. Local children Keiran Johnson, five, from Paisley and Luke Callanin also five, from Renton were the first to try the adventure trail which takes in five key areas across the site. Designed to give children the opportunity to engage more with the historical environment, the trail follows the ‘secret survival’ theme and looks at how the castle’s natural defences helped it when it was under attack, and why it was such an important site for the West of Scotland.

A short film about how James V’s palace at Stirling Castle is being returned to its 16th-century magnificence can now be seen on the internet. Historic Scotland is using the web to publicise the Â£12 million project to refurbish the royal apartments to create a major new visitor attraction. The film is the first in a planned series highlighting the project itself, and the work of the traditional craftsmen and women who are decorating, furnishing and fitting the palace using many of the same skills and materials as their predecessors in the early 1540s.